← New search

2018 Hyundai Elantra

Owner reports · Recalls · Investigations

Similar to other model years

Owner complaints for the 2018 Hyundai Elantra do not stand out strongly from the model-year median of 182.

About this comparison →

When problems were reported

Mileage at the reported incident

91 reports with mileage · 190 unknown

NHTSA’s mileage field refers to the reported incident, not necessarily the filing date. This shows report counts, not the likelihood of a failure.

What to inspect

Issues worth paying extra attention to based on owner reports.

  • Engine. Review the 140 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
  • Electrical System. Review the 43 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
  • Power Train. Review the 24 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →

NHTSA owner reports · September 18, 2026 snapshot.

12 crash reports7 fire reports6 injury reports

What owners actually said

281 reports
Mileage unknown · Nov 20, 2024
Air BagsCrashInjury

I was in a car accident. I was hit on the passenger rear side and the car spun out of control but none of the airbags deployed. The vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer but we did reach out to them and are in the process of filling out a questionnaire. The vehicle is currently being assessed in a body shop as …

Read full complaint

I was in a car accident. I was hit on the passenger rear side and the car spun out of control but none of the airbags deployed. The vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer but we did reach out to them and are in the process of filling out a questionnaire. The vehicle is currently being assessed in a body shop as we work with the insurance to see the final damages.

NHTSA ODI #11626528

Mileage unknown · Nov 11, 2024
Engine

Engine seized up at 142K miles. Had regular oil changes and maintenance. Connecting rod crank shaft end / bearing blew apart and seized engine.

NHTSA ODI #11624546

Mileage unknown · Oct 28, 2024
EnginePower TrainVehicle Speed Control

Engine is knocking cannot find a solution for this problem car stalls wen coming to a stop the car completely powers off , noticing a weird smell now ,

NHTSA ODI #11622343

Mileage unknown · Oct 26, 2024
Steering

My car's steering wheel is making a weird rubbing noise after driving for a short time on wet roads. It sounds like rubber is being turned against something (ie not metallic-sounding) This occurs whether I am in park, drive, reverse, and occurs when turning the wheel in any direction. No warning lights turn on. Currently, it…

Read full complaint

My car's steering wheel is making a weird rubbing noise after driving for a short time on wet roads. It sounds like rubber is being turned against something (ie not metallic-sounding) This occurs whether I am in park, drive, reverse, and occurs when turning the wheel in any direction. No warning lights turn on. Currently, it only occurs after driving on wet roads (it doesn't actually have to be actively raining; just for the roads to be pretty wet from a recent rain). My mechanic did hear it one time when I was able to drive over immediately after it rained, and said it sounded like it was coming from the area of the MDPS, but, was later unable to duplicate it (the sound usually goes away after sitting for 2-3 hours). I've contacted the dealer because there are numerous TSBs out regarding the steering column; however, they said since they can't duplicate it, they will not repair it under warranty or as a courtesy (the jury is out as to whether it is covered under my drive-train warranty, but, as I said, since it's only a TSB, they won't cover it anyway at this point). I am concerned it will get worse and cause me to lose power steering/cause an accident.

NHTSA ODI #11622044

Mileage unknown · Oct 24, 2024
Air Bags

Driver airbag light came on. My car has 33,000 miles on it. I live in California and the car is garaged. I think the maker has had airbag recalls on other models

NHTSA ODI #11621744

Mileage unknown · Oct 6, 2024
Engine

Driving on the freeway around 55 MPH the engine would stall. Scared the heck out of me this started around 130000 miles on the car. Fixed a sensor still didn’t fixed the issue did an oil change that seemed to fixed the stalling. Low oil light never came on. So for years after that when the car stalled I did and oil. change. Fina…

Read full complaint

Driving on the freeway around 55 MPH the engine would stall. Scared the heck out of me this started around 130000 miles on the car. Fixed a sensor still didn’t fixed the issue did an oil change that seemed to fixed the stalling. Low oil light never came on. So for years after that when the car stalled I did and oil. change. Finally at 183000 the engine gave out. Did my research found out Hyundai knew there was a problem with the engines. On 2019 and 2020 Elantra engines have been recall. 2018 not enough complaints on th engine. There was a knock sensor recall on the car. I never got a recall notice. Sent an email to Hyundai saw that the email was received but no one has responded this was a month ago. Taking my Hyundai to the dealership to see if they’ll do anything for me. My miles are all highway miles. Engine should have lasted longer. Very disappointed that Hyundai has known that the 2.0 liter engines since 2015 has had issue over 500000 cars are effected with this issue but Hyundai doesn’t want to fix the issue. It’ll all about the money for the company producing defected cars even Kia have the same issue.

NHTSA ODI #11618352

6,300 miles · Sep 19, 2024
Fuel System, Gasoline

The contact owns a 2018 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle hesitated, and the vehicle lost motive power. The driver was able to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway, where the vehicle failed to restart. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent …

Read full complaint

The contact owns a 2018 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle hesitated, and the vehicle lost motive power. The driver was able to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway, where the vehicle failed to restart. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the fuel pump. The vehicle was repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V528000 (Fuel System, Gasoline), but the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 6,300. The VIN was not available.

NHTSA ODI #11615507

Mileage unknown · Sep 6, 2024
Engine

The engine experienced rod bearing failure while driving the vehicle. The vehicle died on the road in a high traffic area, which put me and others at risk as they tried to maneuver around the car and as I tried to get the car off the road. The car had just had the oil changed, and had consistent/regular maintenance. No warning l…

Read full complaint

The engine experienced rod bearing failure while driving the vehicle. The vehicle died on the road in a high traffic area, which put me and others at risk as they tried to maneuver around the car and as I tried to get the car off the road. The car had just had the oil changed, and had consistent/regular maintenance. No warning lamps lit up on the dashboard at all until the engine died, at which point the oil indicator lit up. The vehicle has been taken to Hyundai and confirmed to have rod bearing failure, a known issue with engines in Hyundais and Kias.

NHTSA ODI #11613029

Mileage unknown · Sep 4, 2024
Engine And Engine Cooling

See attached document for complaint.

NHTSA ODI #11612581

Mileage unknown · Aug 29, 2024
Electrical SystemExterior Lighting

My husband filed a complaint about the lighting on his Hyundai sonata and I have a Hyundai Elantra that is doing the same thing. Twice now while I’ve been driving at night, my headlights have gone off an and come back on by themselves. They were off about 15 seconds each time. Then this week I had my back break light (the one cl…

Read full complaint

My husband filed a complaint about the lighting on his Hyundai sonata and I have a Hyundai Elantra that is doing the same thing. Twice now while I’ve been driving at night, my headlights have gone off an and come back on by themselves. They were off about 15 seconds each time. Then this week I had my back break light (the one close to the windshield) and the passenger side headlights go out suddenly. My car is a 2018 Elantra with 70k miles on it. I just got through replacing both headlights about a year ago when my car had 60k miles on it.

NHTSA ODI #11611717

Official recalls

0

No recalls in this snapshot.

Model-level recall history does not show whether a particular VIN is affected or has received a repair. Check a VIN with NHTSA ↗

NHTSA investigations

0

No exact-year investigations in this snapshot.

Go deeper into Hyundai Elantra problems